Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
A Pump War?
NEW YORK TIMES
Thomas Friedman
Is it just my imagination or is there a global oil war underway pitting the United States and Saudi Arabia on one side against Russia and Iran on the other? One can’t say for sure whether the American-Saudi oil alliance is deliberate or a coincidence of interests, but, if it is explicit, then clearly we’re trying to do to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, exactly what the Americans and Saudis did to the last leaders of the Soviet Union: pump them to death — bankrupt them by bringing down the price of oil to levels below what both Moscow and Tehran need to finance their budgets.
The incredible shrinking Keystone
POLITICO
Elana Schor
The pipeline that launched so many street protests, ad campaigns and political headaches for the White House is increasingly irrelevant in the midterm elections and the energy markets — even for the groups that have fought so hard to either build it or block it. Neither side will say publicly that the Keystone XL pipeline is less important than it once was. But after Keystone’s three-year rise to the top of Washington’s energy agenda, fueling lobbying and advertising bills well into the tens of millions of dollars, green groups and the oil industry are both moving on.
States hit wall of confusion over EPA power plant rules
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Erica Martinson
EPA’s proposals to cut greenhouse gases from power plants are causing a lot of confusion and concern in state capitals that are now struggling to figure out how to meet the mandates, several state officials said Tuesday.
The Pentagon Goes to Climate War
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The military has often been used as a vehicle for social change, and sometimes—as in Harry Truman ’s 1948 desegregation order—that can be a force for good. For now, what the U.S. and the world most need is credible and sufficient American military power to deter and defeat our enemies. Issuing politically correct bows against a speculative threat from climate change when ISIS is at the gates of Baghdad will only convince those enemies that we lack the will to do so.
Refiners to Obama: Keep renewable fuel quotas down
FUEL FIX
Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Refiners on Tuesday implored President Barack Obama to hold firm on plans to scale back renewable fuel quotas for 2014, warning that if the administration gives in to Corn Belt demands for higher mandates, it could cause gasoline prices to spike.
How falling oil prices are squeezing Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia
VOX
Brad Plumer
The biggest energy story in the world right now is the collapse of global oil prices. And for major producers like Russia or Iran or even Saudi Arabia, that’s unsettling news.
Global Oil Glut Sends Prices Plunging
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Russell Gold
Oil prices posted their biggest one-day drop in nearly two years Tuesday as a U.S.-led wave of crude has crashed into weak global demand, threatening the stability of some countries and providing an economic lifeline to others.
Exxon, Shell Carbon Emissions Rise Though Pumping Drops
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Daniel Gilbert
For every barrel they pump, the two biggest Western oil companies generated 10% more in greenhouse gases each last year than they did in 2011, according to company data. The rise in such emissions, which trap heat in the atmosphere, in part stems from the mounting difficulty of getting oil and gas out of the ground.
Technology
What happens to tech policy if Republicans take the Senate?
WASHINGTON POST
Nancy Scola
Odds are that more tech bills would land on Obama’s desk. The president has been fuzzy with his views on some of the particulars of various tech policy questions. So, at the very least, should Republicans indeed win back the Senate on Nov. 4, one effect is near certain: The American public would get a clearer sense of where Obama, widely considered history’s most tech-friendly president on his own Election Day, actually stands on the day’s most pressing tech issues.
Online privacy stuck in D.C. ditch
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Katy Bachman
Online commercial privacy for consumers stands tall as an issue not defined by political affiliation, but it’s also clearly out of fashion these days in the nation’s capital with the real movement in the states and overseas.
How Jean Tirole’s Work Helps Explain the Internet Economy
NEW YORK TIMES
Claire Cain Miller
For anyone who has wondered how it’s possible to get so much stuff from web companies free or at too-good-to-be-true prices — whether Google searching, Facebook socializing, Uber riding or Amazon shopping — Jean Tirole, the new Nobel Prize winner in economics, has an answer.
Finance
Fed Is Silent on Doomsday Book, a Blueprint for Fighting Crises
NEW YORK TIMES
Binyamin Appelbaum
It’s called the Doomsday Book — though by now, officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York probably regret they ever came up with that catchy nickname. It’s a collection of legal opinions that describe and delineate the Federal Reserve’s ability to fight financial crises, along with a variety of related documents. And the Fed would really prefer to tell the public nothing more than that.
2014 playbook: how to define and destroy a private equity candidate
POLITICO
MJ Lee
Now, in the homestretch of the 2014 midterms, incumbent governors and senators in states like Kansas, Connecticut and Illinois are unleashing caustic attacks on wealthy challengers based on their ties to private equity. Their accusations echo the rhetoric the Obama campaign hurled at Romney and his business record in the previous election, when the Republican presidential candidate received an onslaught of criticism over his role at Bain Capital.
Foreclosure Dispute Pits Mortgage Lenders vs. Investors
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Joe Light
Like lenders, homeowners associations can foreclose on homes to recoup delinquent payments, an option that many have taken after waiting years for lenders themselves to foreclose, a scenario that has left homes without dues-paying owners and some HOAs strapped for cash. Nevada and about 20 other states have laws that allow HOA liens to get priority over first mortgages. The result, according to a recent state court decision, is that homes can be put up for auction by HOAs—without the blessing of the mortgage lender—and sold, extinguishing the first mortgage and allowing the investor to get title to the home. Such sales often are for an amount equal to or slightly above the HOA dues in arrears.
Another Scandal Hits Citigroup’s Moneymaking Mexican Division
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Michael Corkery and Jessica Silver-Greenberg
The accusations read like a pulp thriller: Citigroup employees in Mexico are suspected of pocketing millions of dollars in kickbacks from vendors. And bodyguards for bank executives bought audio recordings of personal phone calls and created shell companies to disguise their fraud.
Senior House Financial Services Members Propose Ex-Im Bill
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kristina Peterson
Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Gary Miller of California, the panel’s vice chairman, will propose Tuesday extending the bank’s charter for five years, while bolstering its risk and fraud protections, according to a copy of the bill reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. … It’s not clear whether the lawmakers’ proposed changes to the bank would be enough to win over enough of its fiercest critics in Congress.
Politics
Republicans Hold Advantage as Midterms Near
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Janet Hook
Republicans remain in a favorable position heading into the midterm election, but the outlook is unsettled amid unusually low voter interest, high dissatisfaction with leaders in Washington and a reordering of issues on voters’ minds, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds. … One of the wild cards in the final weeks of the midterm campaign is the rise of foreign affairs as an issue on voters’ minds. The fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria ranked third among issues that voters said would be important in their vote for Congress, beyond job creation and breaking the partisan gridlock in Washington. The poll also found support rising for the use of U.S. ground forces to fight Islamic State. … The outbreak of Ebola also is making an impression on voters, as 98% have heard or read about the deadly virus, a record level of awareness of major news events tracked by Journal/NBC polling.
Why Republicans Must Win the Senate in 2014
ROLL CALL
Stu Rothenberg
Current conditions are so favorable for the GOP — including the president’s poor poll numbers, the states with Senate races, the lower turnout of Democratic groups in midterm elections, the quality of this cycle’s Republican Senate recruits and the daily dose of negative news that should help the party not holding the White House — that Republican Senate gains of fewer than six seats would be a punch to the party’s solar plexus. If Republicans don’t net those six Senate seats this cycle, they are going to find themselves trying to explain to disgruntled, disappointed donors and voters why and how they will do better in a more difficult political environment.
Democrats’ Hopes to Gain in House Fade
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Martin
Since last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has essentially given up efforts to unseat Republicans in several races, pulling advertising money from a dozen campaigns in Republican-held districts to focus on protecting its embattled incumbents.
Ebola is 2014 October surprise
THE HILL
Elise Viebeck
The mounting anxiety has made politicians extra attentive to Ebola, with candidates seizing on the spread of the virus to hammer their opponents. The issue is particularly fraught for Democrats, given signs that President Obama’s dragging poll numbers could help Republicans take control of the Senate. Though Ebola is unlikely to move the needle in specific races, political strategists say it adds to the darkening public mood.
Key Democratic groups giving up on Senate race in Kentucky
WASHINGTON POST
Paul Kane and Sean Sullivan
Key Democratic groups said Tuesday that they were abandoning the airwaves in the Senate battle in Kentucky, increasing the chances that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) will hold on to his seat in November.
The Obama Deniers
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Yet [Democratic incumbents] now want voters to believe that if they get another six-year term they will somehow emerge as giants of principled independence. That promise will turn into a pumpkin the minute they again cast a vote to make Mr. Reid Majority Leader. The deny-Obama strategy may be a political necessity in the sixth year of this listing Presidency, but voters who fall for the ruse will get a continuation of the same failed policies.
Supreme Court scrutinizes regulators with a financial interest in what they regulate
WASHINGTON POST
Robert Barnes
Was the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners protecting the public or getting rid of competition when it cracked down on teeth-whitening services offered in shopping malls and tanning salons? To several Supreme Court justices who heard the case Tuesday, it seemed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made the right call in going after the board, which is composed overwhelmingly of dentists appointed by other dentists.
Supreme Court Allows Texas Abortion Clinics to Stay Open
NEW YORK TIMES
Adam Liptak
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed more than a dozen Texas abortion clinics to reopen, blocking a state law that had imposed strict requirements on abortion providers. Had the law been allowed to stand, it would have caused all but eight of the state’s abortion clinics to close and would have required many women to travel more than 150 miles to the nearest abortion provider.
Ohio’s John Kasich wants to redefine the Republican Party
WASHINGTON POST
Dan Balz
His economic philosophy is Republican orthodoxy, drawn from supply-side theory and coupled with a reformist streak. But what sets Kasich apart from some others in his party is his willingness to use the levers of government and the zeal with which he has embraced his own version of compassionate conservatism, with strong religious overtones.
The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons
NEW YORK TIMES
C.J. Chivers
From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.
